ABOHARINQUIRY: Mr Jaskiran Singh, SDM, has ordered an inquiry into the allegations levelled against Mr Jaswant Singh, sarpanch of Rukanpura Khuikhera village. The action was taken on the basis of complaints lodged by Mr Balbir Singh and Mr Tehal Singh, residents of the village. They alleged that funds received for development works had been misused.

AMRITSARARRESTED: Harjinder Singh, a resident of Sabhana Mithapur in Gurdaspur district, has been arrested by the district police on charges of possessing a fake passport. Mr Manjit Singh, Immigration Officer at Amritsar international airport, in a the complaint lodged at Rajasansi police station here on Wednesday alleged that the accused was to board a Turkistan flight numbering T-328 when he was found possessing a fake visa. He was returning to England.

MASS MARRIAGES: Mass marriages of 19 couples belonging to the economically weaker sections of society were performed at a function organised by the Rotary Club, Midtown, here on Wednesday.

BATHINDAPENSIONS: Chaudhary Santokh Singh, Social Welfare Minister, Punjab, on Wednesday said Rs 155 crore had been earmarked for giving pensions to the old, widows and physically-challenged under the social welfare pension schemes in the financial year. He was addressing a function at Moga which was organised to distribute aid among the physically challenged. One hundred tricycles, 20 wheelchairs and 50 hearing aids were distributed among the physically challenged.

MEMORANDUM: A section of SC/BC employees, led by a state-level coordination committee, on Thursday staged a dharna in front of the office of the Deputy Commissioner and submitted a memorandum to him. Mr Matthew Sukhchain, district president of the committee, alleged that the state government was anti-Dalit and anti-employee. The activists also raised anti-government slogans.

AWARENESS RALLY: Mr P.K. Ramanathan, Territory Manager, Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited, said here on Thursday the corporation had decided to hold awareness drive about the petroleum conservation. With the help of Police Public School, a rally on the importance of saving oil would be held on Friday. Mr Ishwar Singh, SSP, would give away prizes to the winners.

EFFIGY BURNT: Members of the Employees Federation of the PSEB on Thursday burnt an effigy of the Haldia Committee protest against the proposed formation of corporation in place of board.

DERA
BASSIILLEGAL POSSESSION: An illegal possession over a common passage in
Dandrala village was removed by the Panchayat authorities with the help
of local revenue authorities here on Thursday. The passage on the
government land had been allegedly encroached upon by an influential
resident of the village for the past couple of years. A team of revenue
officials, including Mr Jarnail Singh, Kanoongo, Mr Ranjit Singh,
Patwari, and Mr Meet Singh, Additional Secretary, Panchayat, alongwith
Ms Surjit Kaur, sarpanch, Mr Amarjit Singh and Ms Mohinder Kaur, visited
the spot and got the passage vacated.

GURDASPURGANG BUSTED: The police has busted a gang of women thieves and arrested all its four members. Mr Varinder Kumar, SSP, identified the accused as Raj Kumari, Darshna, Soma and Pushpa, all residents of Paniar under Dinanagar police station, and recovered 37 sarees from their possession.

DRIVE: The Batala police, in a drive against drug-addiction, arrested two pedlars and registered cases against the accused at Batala and Sri Hargobindpur police stations. Dr Naresh Arora, SSP, Batala, said Harvinder Singh was caught for selling drugs to the youth.

HOSHIARPURGANG BUSTED: The district police succeeded in unearthing an inter-district gang of robbers with the arrest of four of its members during nakabandi on Wednesday. Mrs Gurpreet Deo, SSP, stated this in a press note here. She said the gang members were identified as Jaswant Singh alias Santu and Lakhbir Singh alias Chhota, both residents of Uladni, Surjit Singh alias Jeeta of Bassi Gulam Hussain and Shiv Kumar of Mehmoodpur Gadarian.

CAMPAIGN: The district police has started a campaign against eve-teasing and deployed constables, including ladies, in civil dress near local colleges and girls schools. The police arrested Amit Balmiki of the local Clock Tower area, Parminder Singh of Jhadial and Tajinder Singh of the local Mohalla Bahadurpur when they were teasing girl students in front of Government College here on Wednesday.

KHARARBLOOD DONATED: NSS volunteers of the GGS College of Modern Technology, here on Wednesday organised a blood donation camp on the campus. According to a press note, 50 students donated blood. The blood bank team was led by Dr H.S. Oberoi from Civil Hospital and Dr Sangeeta Goel from Civil Hospital, Ropar.

HEART CLINIC: Metro Heart Institute of the Metro Group of Hospitals, Delhi, will soon start its first clinic in Ludhiana. Renowned cardiac surgeon, Dr H.S. Bedi, Chairman, Cardiovascular Surgery, along with his team of cardiologists will provide consultancy on various heart ailments, according to the director, Metro Group of Hospitals, Dr Purshotam Lal. “Metro will hold heart clinics at Basant Road and Kitchlu Nagar on February 1. Such clinics will be held on every alternate Saturdays”, said Dr Lal. “A patient helpline has also been introduced at telephone number 2562713,” he added.

QUIZ CONTEST: The political science society of SDP College for Women, Ludhiana, organised a quiz contest in the college campus on Wednesday. Five teams comprising 10 students participated. Meenu and Sonia of Team-E won the contest. Mrs S. Verma, Principal, gave away the prizes.

INAUGURATION: The Mayor, Mr Nahar Singh Gill, will inaugurate a park in the economically weaker sections (EWS) colony, behind Vardhman Mill, in Sector 32 here, on Friday. According to area councillor, Mr Ram Chander Yadav (ward No 13), the park will be developed at an estimated cost of Rs 17.5 lakh.

SCHOOL OPENED: PEARLS, an ISO certified chain of nursery schools, was inaugurated on Thursday in Gurdev Nagar, here. The director of the school, Major Sushil Goel, said the main aim at PEARLS was to make the children have fun while they learned as they intended to teach through creative and visual imagery, group activity, communication, music, dramatic play and story telling.

DISTRIBUTED: Surinder Singh Chana, Tehsildar-cum-Executive Magistrate, said that nearly Rs 27 lakh had been distributed to the farmers of 29 villages whose paddy had been damaged due to heavy rain during the rainy season last year. He said the bonus announced by the Punjab Government on paddy would be distributed soon.

AID FOR HANDICAPPED: The secretary of the local market committee, Mr Vijay Merchant Gupta, said Rs 2 lakh would be distributed to those who lost their limbs during thrasher incidents this year. Mr Ravinder Kumar, SDM, was also present.

POETRY RECITATION: The PAU will organise a state-level inter college poetry recitation and story writing competition on February 11 at the Students’ Home of the university. The president of the Young Writers’ Association, Dr Joginder Singh Nirala, said that invitations to all colleges of the state had been dispatched. Mr Nirmal Jaura, Assistant Director (Punjab Relations) of the PAU Communication Centre, is the convener.

MANSAONE KILLED: One person was killed and four were injured in a collision between a PRTC bus and a tractor-trailer near Bhamekalan village. According to information, Mukhtiar Singh (65) died on the spot.

POPPY HUSK SEIZED: The local police has arrested Gurjit Singh, a resident of Barnala, for possessing 25 kg of poppy husk. A case under Sections 15, 61 and 85 of the NDPS Act has been registered. The accused was produced in the court of the Chief Judicial Magistrate, Mr Harsh Mehta, who sent him to judicial custody.

NAWANSHAHRCHEQUES: Mr Charanjit Singh Channi, Lok Sabha member from Hoshiarpur, distributed cheques amounting to Rs 7000 each among 53 government primary schools of Balachaur (education block-1) under the sarv shikhiya abhiyan scheme at Balachaur, about 20 km from here, on Wednesday. Addressing the gathering.

DISTRIBUTED: The Lions Club, City Smile, Banga distributed shoes and socks among 20 poor children of Government Primary School and the Anganwari centre at Kajla village on Wednesday. Mr Baldev Nayyar, a social worker, presided.

CAMP : The Acharata Atma Ram Jain Swasathya Sewa Samiti, Sundernagar, Ludhiana and the local unit of the Mahavir Jain Yuvak Mandal organised a free medical check-up camp at Rahon on Sunday. A team of 35 doctors from the CMC, Ludhiana, and Mohan Devi Oswal Hospital, Ludhiana, examined about 3500 patients.

PATHANKOTDHARNA: The BSNL Employees Union staged a dharna here on Wednesday in support of its demands. Mr Ravi Kant Sharma, general secretary of the union, said that a charter of 27 demands, including modernisation of telecom factories, LTC facility, bonus group insurance of employees and medical facilities, was given to the General Manager, Telecom, Pathankot district
circle.

PATIALAACTION SOUGHT: Students of the local Government Physical Education College organised a rally in the city and later submitted a memorandum to the Deputy Commissioner seeking action against two university teachers on Wednesday. The teachers had been accused of sexual harassment. They also demanded the transfer of the college principal.

OIL CONSERVATION: The oil conservation fortnight, which was organised by Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd to spread the message of oil conservation concluded here on Wednesday. Mr Rakesh
Bhasker, District Food and Supplies Controller (DFSC), here was the chief guest at the concluding function.

ELECTED: Lieut-Col Bhuvanesh Sharma (retd) has been elected President of the Citizens for Social Action at its annual meeting held here on Wednesday. The other office-bearers are: vice-president, Maj (retd) Parduman Singh— and treasurer — Mr G.S
Dhanoa.

PHAGWARARALLY: A sakhrata chetna rally was held on Wednesday at Bhanoki village. According to a press note, it was joined by students of Government Senior Secondary Schools of Bhanoki and Jagatpur Jattan villages. It was flagged off by local SDM Pritam Singh.

ROCKETRY WORKSHOP: Science teachers got a hands-on experience of designing and launching model rockets during the ongoing workshop on rocketry, being organised by the Punjab State Council for Science and Technology, here. About 45 teachers from various schools in Punjab as well as Chandigarh are attending the workshop. The programme is being conducted by Mr
D.R. Baluragi, a retired professor of Physics from Karnataka. Friday’s session would include experiments on multi-stage rockets.

HIKE CONDEMNED: The Welfare Association
MIG-I Houses, Sector 40-C has condemned the recent hike in rates of cable connection by cable operators in Panchkula. The association has observed that the hike had been made arbitrarily. In a press note issued here on Wednesday Mr
S.K. Khosla, general secretary of the association, has urged the cable consumers not to pay the increased rates.

SAS NAGARLABOURERS EXPRESS SOLIDARITY: About 700 members of the Construction Workers Labour Union gathered at the Labour Chowk, Sector-44, Chandigarh, on Wednesday to express solidarity with one of their contractors working here in Phase XI. The contractor, Mr Gopal
Shukla, has alleged that his employer, Mr Rajwant Singh, who is working with the
Hyderabad police, has refused to pay for the part of the house he has got constructed in Phase XI here. Mr Rajwant Singh on the other hand states that he has already paid over Rs 2.65 lakh to the contractor.

HARYANA

AMBALA
BIJLI SABHAS HELD: The Uttar Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam has started holding bijli sabhas’ to redress the complaints of its consumers. The sabhas’ will be organised in Ambala, Panchkula, Kurukshetra, Kaithal, Karnal, Panipat, Yamuna Nagar, Jind,
Sonipat, Rohtak and Jhajjar districts and arranged at subdivisional, divisional and circle level.

CHALLANED: A car owner who was challaned by the District Transport Officer on GT road near the city fled by dodging a constable. The police has registered a case against
him.

According to the police, the man was coming from Delhi. As soon as the car reached the city the District Transport Officer stopped him for checking and found that the documents were not available with him. The officer impounded the car and directed a constable to take it to Baldev Nagar police station. As soon as the car reached near the police station and the constable got down of the car its owner immediately fled away.

ANNUAL FUNCTION: The annual function of Convent of Sacred Heart, Ambala cantonment was held in Kharga auditorium on Thursday. The function started with welcome song followed by various cultural programmes. The school Principal,
Ms.R. Mann, said new projects were being undertaken. Prizes were distributed among champion houses and scholarships given to Pinkansha Thaper and Gangandeep Singh Bhatia.

DEMANDED: The open School Welfare Association has demanded that computer should be included in the curriculum of open schools. It said computer had been introduced as a subject in other schools and the open schools should also have it.

HISARCASE REGISTERED: The local police has registered a case against a youth for kidnapping a student from a local school. According to the police, seven-year-old Rahul, a son of a local trader, Mr Ramphal
Khatana, had gone to school in the morning on Wednesday. In his complaint, Mr Ghasi Ram, grandfather of Rahul, said their servant, Anil Kumar, a resident of Bihar, had kidnapped Rahul when he was returning from the school in the afternoon.

ROHTAKDEAD: Mr Mool Chand Dhiman, Principal, Arts School in the ITI, died at the PGIMS here on Wednesday. He leaves his wife, two daughters and a son. Mr Mool Chand was a popular figure in the local circles for his selfless and immense contribution to the field of art.

HIMACHAL PRADESH

PARWANOOPOWER CUTS: The frequent power cuts imposed by the Haryana Vidyut Parsaran Nigam (HVPN) have added to the woes of residents of the Kalka town and its surrounding areas who are already reeling under the intense cold wave. The small-scale industrial units are worst affected as power cuts make meeting deadlines impossible. Sources in the HVPN said power cuts were being imposed to make up for the short fall in power generation in Haryana owing to technical faults.